Today, when disparate networks by different network operators are interconnected, the network operators interconnect with one another using terms set by “best efforts” contractual clauses, “industry practices or norms” and other notions of “fair trade.”
FIG. 1 depicts the current model for interconnection, which uses best efforts to achieve provision of services across interconnected networks. As shown in FIG. 1, when operator A wishes to pass traffic through to operator B, or vice versa, or when operator B wishes for operator A to pass traffic through to operator B, there are performance demands associated with interconnection of the networks of operator A and B, as represented by interconnection IN. Operator A, for instance, may expect operator B to perform the request for service immediately according to a real-time requirement, however, it is unclear what happens if operator B “tries its best,” but fails to provide performance of the request for service in real-time. Thus, today, real-time performance requirements by interconnections for passing traffic from one network to another are set by “best efforts” made by each of the operators. However, there is no resolution mechanism for ensuring that the destination network operator will plan, schedule, and perform according to real-time requirements as demanded, and no way for the destination network operator to prepare its resources based on the real-time requirements of incoming service requests. In other words, today's model does not take real-time performance requirements into consideration when handling service requests across operator's networks. As a result, there is no guarantee whether a service handled by another network can be sent or received in real time.
With the proliferation of multimedia services, e.g., mobile television (mTV), video telephony, multimedia conference, etc., and the advancement of the terminal, hardware, and software technology, e.g., camera phone, Blue-tooth, Wi-Fi, Universal Mobile Telephone System (UMTS), etc., it is envisioned that there will be a wide range of new applications and services available which will demand real-time performance requirements for sending or delivering the service. These applications and services with real-time performance requirements present a significant revenue opportunity because real-time services are of high value to customers. Real-time services provide immediate results, which can be important for a class of multimedia applications and a host of other services and transactions requiring immediate action (e.g., a stock purchase electronic transaction where the purchase price is sensitive to time). However, as described above, current classification of services is not closely tied, or directly correlated, to the real-time requirements of a particular service, but rather operators merely make their best efforts to perform with the available resources. Plus, market forces give each of the operators an economic incentive to maximize their own revenue, which can create conflict with performing according to real-time demands where performing in real-time reaps less revenue for some reason than not performing in real-time for some requests. Thus, due to indefiniteness of best efforts clauses, it is difficult to ascertain what today's processes map to when ensuring the performance of services having real-time performance requirements in real-time.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to classify services based on real-time performance requirement categories. It would be further desirable to dynamically allocate network resources based on requests for services received and their corresponding real-time performance categories and to intelligently route such services among disparate networks based on their real-time requirement categories so that from an overall standpoint, network services are provided in a manner that is consistent with the underlying real-time performance characteristics of the services offered via the network.
Solutions to these and other deficiencies of the state of the art of delivering services in telecommunications networks are thus desirable.